In certain work environments, a user often serves as a point of integration within a complex analysis project which involves information collection and reporting of the collected information. Conventionally, during an information collection process, a user encounters a situation that includes a large amount of information. The user analyzes the situation and determines which pieces of information are appropriate or relevant to the specific situation (e.g., a specific task in a specific work environment). In other words, the user extracts what they perceive to be the relevant or appropriate information and attempts to minimize any extraneous information. The user locally records this appropriate or relevant information. After a time delay, the user collects and analyzes additional, related enterprise information from other sources which may comprise information or data records relating to the specific situation and/or task the user encounters in a given work environment. These records can also be based on who the specific user is and/or what the specific user is working on. For example, the records might include personal records, statistics, quality records, defect records, status records, timing information, date information, historical information, configuration information, design information, survey information, audit information, inventory information, and identification information. The user then records information he/she deems relevant into the computer. The computer communicates the information to a database which stores this information as a “report.” The database can be part of a system sometimes referred to as an information management system (IMS). Of the total information available in a particular situation, only certain “desired” information is relevant or appropriate to resolve that particular situation and should be included in the report. The desired information can include, for example, findings, recommendations or conclusions used to characterize, disposition, resolve or fix a specific, particular situation. However, an ideal report should not include extraneous information that is unnecessary or irrelevant to characterize, disposition, resolve or fix the specific, particular situation. This desired information generated by the user can then be used to help track and understand the information.
One example of an information collection process might take place, for example, in the context of a problem identification and reporting process. In a particular work environment, a user, such as an inspector or other worker, might traditionally encounter a work situation that involves a specific problem. The user typically analyzes the problem and extracts what they believe to be appropriate information to characterize and/or potentially solve the problem. The user typically takes handwritten notes which describe their findings, recommendations or conclusions regarding the problem, and then transfers their notes to a computer system at a later time. In many cases the user's work environment often prevents the user from recording the information in the IMS immediately. Before entering the information into an IMS, many users also need to do subsequent research that is helpful in characterizing the problem or in generating their conclusions. At a later time the user or another person can enter the problem information into a problem management system (PMS) that resides in an IMS.
For example, one industry that has traditionally relied on manual methods of collecting data and recording it for future use is the aircraft manufacturing, modification and maintenance industry. In this work environment, aircraft inspectors would traditionally take handwritten notes of defects or non-conformance problems while inspecting an aircraft and then, at a later time, research fault criteria and part numbers and file a report by manually typing their notes into a problem management system (PMS) maintained on a remote computer in another location.
Such information collection processes are inefficient and can result in duplication of effort since an intermediate step takes place between identifying the problem and entering it into the problem reporting system. As such, these processes can often result in large delays or cycle times which arise during the time elapsed between analyzing and identifying the information, recording the relevant information on paper, and subsequently logging it into the IMS.
Portable personal computers (PCs) and wireless networking technologies have enabled point-of-use information collection technologies. Using the computers to collect information along with wireless networking technologies can allow a user to simultaneously collect and record the collected information in an IMS connected to the network. To make the process of collecting information even more efficient, free-form computer processes can use a simple form to standardize reporting of any information encountered within the specific work environment. Users can be provided with these standard, generalized forms over a user interface on the computer. The users can record information they deem to be appropriate or relevant on a form and then submit the completed form to an IMS.
Standardized forms can often result in incomplete or erroneous recording of the information. These standardized forms do not adapt or correspond to particular situations within a work environment, and are not designed to extract particular “desired” information that might be helpful in resolving the specific situation. In many cases an individual may fail to include some of the “desired” information required in a specific situation.
Standardized forms are also plagued by inconsistent information entry. Information deemed relevant in a particular situation to one user may vary greatly from that deemed relevant by another user. Because the actual description of the information is left up to the individual recording the information into the form, this can result in vast differences with respect to the manner in which information is reported. Free-form text entered by individual users tends to vary depending on the user, time of day, etc. As such, the information that is eventually reported can vary on a case-by-case or user-by-user basis. For instance, when different users record similar information, the particular information they choose to provide or the words they use to describe that information can vary significantly. Moreover, information recorded by a single user can also vary significantly each time that user records the same information since the same user might record the same information differently at different times.
Standardized forms are also susceptible to entry of undesired information and to user errors. For example, users might enter extraneous information that is unnecessary, inappropriate or irrelevant and not useful in the specific, particular situation that exists within the context of the particular work environment.
Another drawback of hard-coded process workflows or input forms is that they can not be re-used for data capture scenarios other than their original design.
Extensible Markup Language (XML), a formal recommendation from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), is increasingly becoming a preferred format for transferring data. XML can be used by an entity that wants to share information in a consistent way. XML provides a flexible way to create common information formats and share both the format and the data on the World Wide Web, intranets, and elsewhere. XML is a tag-based hierarchical language that provides the ability to represent data in diverse formats and contexts. XML uses markup symbols to describe the contents of a page or file. XML is “extensible” because the markup symbols are unlimited and self-defining. XML describes the content in terms of what data is being described. XML can be used to represent data spanning the spectrum from semi-structured data (such as one would find in a word-processing document) to generally structured data. An XML file can be processed purely as data by a program, stored with similar data on another computer and/or displayed. XML is well-suited for many types of communication including business-to-business and client-to-server communication.
XML Schema Definition (XSD) specifies how to formally describe the elements in an Extensible Markup Language (XML) document. This description can be used to verify that each item of content in a document adheres to the description of the element in which the content is to be placed. In general, a schema is an abstract representation of an object's characteristics and relationship to other objects. An XML schema is an XML vocabulary for describing XML instance documents. The term “instance” is used because a schema describes a class of documents, of which there can be many different instances. An XML schema represents the interrelationship between the attributes and elements of an XML object (for example, a document or a portion of a document). To create a schema for a document its structure is analyzed and each structural element is defined within a set of tags as it is encountered. A schema definition can be processed with standard XML tools and services such as DOM, SAX, XPath, and XML Transformations (XSLT). Benefits of XSD include self-documentation, automatic schema creation, and the ability to be queried through XML Transformations (XSLT).
Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL), formerly called Extensible Style Language, is a language for creating a style sheet that describes how data, marked up using the Extensible Markup Language (XML), is to be presented. XSL gives a developer tools to describe exactly which data fields in an XML file to display, and exactly where and how to display them. Like any style sheet language, XSL can be used to create a style definition for one XML document or reused for many other XML documents. Data represented in XML is often created and retained in electronic documents, such as electronic forms. The structure of an electronic form that is written in XML typically is governed by an XML schema (XSD) and this structure can be altered by applying an eXtensible Style-sheet Language Transformation (XSLT) file on the form.
Notwithstanding these advances, there is a need for improved information collection techniques which can help ensure that a user collects all of the relevant or desired information needed to report a particular situation in a specific work environment without collecting extraneous information. These techniques should help ensure that the collected information is reported in a consistent manner regardless of the user. The information reported or recorded should not tend to vary on a case-by-case or user-by-user basis. The recorded information should include all information needed to report a particular situation in the context of that situation. Such techniques should also help to reduce errors in recording of the information, and allow the reported information to be posted quickly into an IMS. Other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.